Emily Palen. This is simply amazing on the Ultra/Tori/ERR combo, especially at low levels. The amount of detail from Decware without high volume is hard to describe to those who don't get "first watt," but everyone here knows what I mean. First music I played through the Lumin was Palen, in true end-to-end DSD, and it is impressive.

Believe it or not I first saw these guys playing in Nordstoms and they just rocked the house. I picked up their CD on the table at Nordstoms as well, the album is only so-so though and does not compare to them live, but there is a great version of All Along The Watchtower on it.

Yep, I know I have posted this one before, and recently. But listening to a ripped DSD file through the Lumin is just incredible. There is a depth of realism, of detail and depth, that is simply not there, even with the MFSL on the PWD:

Lon,b, recommend me one Radiohead and one Clinic please. I've only heard a little. Thanks.

Hi Lon, glad to do so ...

Radiohead:

"OK Computer" is probably one of their best acclaimed albums and ranked as 162 on Rolling Stone Magazine's top 500 albums of all times. Awesome album with the songs "Lucky", "Karma Police" and "The Tourist" as a few of my favorites on that album.

These guys are a quirky band from Liverpool and are often seen wearing full on scrubs and surgical masks (looking like, of course, doctors that work in a "Clinic"). They often use vintage keyboards, most notably the Philips Philicorda, Melodica and peculiar off-scale chord progressions.

Beowulf gave some GREAT suggestions on Radiohead albums to try.....I'm a HUGE fan of theirs and it would be pretty tough for me to recommend just one album of theirs to start of with........but I'll try anyway haha. I guess it would be OK COMPUTER (but you can't really go wrong with any of them besides maybe the first album which used a different producer than all the rest).

It was the fist of their albums that I heard in it's entirety and it really is a masterpiece. If you haven't done so already, I'm sure you could search around the web for what folks have been saying about this album since it's release...but ONE of the things I feel (without writing an essay here!) is that they really masterfully blend electronic sounds with acoustic sounds. Digital sounding beats and tones (at times) with fantastic sounding guitars and electric bass and deep full drums. Sometimes just simple acoustic guitars, sometimes lots of sounds frantically emanating from your speakers!

The drums are tuned pretty differently on each track and I love that. The lyrics are cryptic and sung with such passion from Mr. Tom Yorke. His vocals are just stellar! If they are a band you start to dig, (with whatever album you start off with) it will be super fun for you to start exploring their catalog! That's what happened with me and Led Zeppelin years ago. With them I started from their first and went all the way to their last album. What a roller coaster ride that was! Radiohead would give you a real roller coaster ride as well for sure! And the best part is they are still active and not resting on their laurels! And some of the individual members have side projects (I'm currently listening to the brand new album Atoms for Peace, by AMOK...a super group with Tom Yorke singing lead and playing guitar).

Anyway, enjoy! Oh also, Radiohead's music is recorded really well so it should sounds fantastic on your rig! You could even try the vinyl versions of some albums. And beowulk, I'll have to check out Clinic some time...I don't know their stuff. SO MUCH music to take in, I love it!

b and H, thanks. I'll check out one of each. I'm not that much into rock these days but a few bands have caught my ear. What I love about Insurgentes is that heavy metal vibe and like Steve Wilson I'm a fan of Opeth, whose music alternates from dark heavy to beautiful lyricism.

May take me a little time, I'm three weeks away from complete uprooting and am packing away (have to finish packing a POD tomorrow to be picked up Monday, and then preparing the rest to go in a UHAUL a friend I are going to dreive). I wish I could just kick back and listen to music!

I think this is an excellent description of Radiohead and have to agree that their albums are superbly produced.

Clinic is almost certainly more like Radiohead rather than Aerosmith in the genre sense as well, but with their own spin ... they have an almost electronic/techno jazz type feel, but also dark and dememted sound (almost a Halloween Horror movie type driving beat - i.e. "Harmony" and "Come Into Our Room" are good examples).

I hear ya...I can see why you would consider them rock...music genres are a tricky thing though aren't they?

If a group that is considered rock makes an album or a song that diverts from the basic tenets of rock music, does this then make this group Non-rock?? This is really more of a general question I'm posing, not specifically aimed at Radiohead..

I think Radiohead tends to get lumpd into the Prog Rock realm.....I THINK (or maybe actually alternative rock??)! I sort of don't think about what genre they fall into anymore because they dable in so many things...lots of influences really. When I think of Prog rock I tend to think of YES and King Crimson and Radiohead is not like those groups really. But their rock tendancies are supplimented by sounds not usually associated with "pure" "traditional" Rock (what I consider groups like Aerosmith, The Who, The Rolling Stones etc). Radiohead's music has strings and electronica noises, blatent distortions that are not from a guitar etc (some of the groups I'm considering "pure" rock have some of these sounds as well so.....yeah). In this sense I feel like Radiohead is progressing the rock or "pure" rock sound and could be considered Prog Rock.....or an alternative to "pure" rock (Alternative rock)..